“Come on girls, keep hiking!” My girl scout leader was egging us on to keep climbing the overgrown mountain. We were on a hike up Mt. Merapi but our destination was not the top. We were planning on setting up camp about a quarter of the way up the mountain. The object of this hike was so that we could all experience what it would be like to be one with nature. There was only one leader on this expedition, and her name was Linda. She had a big responsibility of being in charge of six 12 year old girls for the weekend and one 10 year old, me. It didn’t bother me that I was the youngest, and I seemed to fit in just right with all the other girls. My mother had doubts about me going on the trip since I was so much younger, but I convinced her I would be perfectly fine. Linda knew it would be a challenge due to the fact that she was the only adult that came along with us, but we are all great girl scouts and she didn’t seem to mind. We had been training for this expedition for months but it was still a very difficult fear to face. The mountain we chose to hike up was extremely dangerous. It was filled with forest green trees and had all sorts of animals. The mountain was home to various types of poisons snakes and spiders, which we were all taught how to identify and kill. Dangerous birds filled the tree tops to hide away from the ligers that lurked below. All of these things may make us look crazy for trying to hike up this mountain, but we were in a section designated for climbers which was supposedly ‘safe’.

A whole day had passed and it seemed like forever. My arms looked like a pepperoni pizza from all the mesquite bites. I could not stop scratching them, and to make matters even worse, turns out I’m allergic to the anti-itch cream I used. Maybe I wasn’t ready for this trip, or wasn’t old enough. I didn’t let this stop me though, I needed to succeed. I had been waiting for what seemed like years for this expedition and I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way. We made our camp near a small river that night. I was in my own tent just like all of the other girls. We each had been carrying a small compact tent in our knapsacks along with enough food and water for the weekend. I opened my bag and was shocked to see what I had found. I dropped my umbrella, camelback water bottle, and bread dropped to the cold, wet, dirty forest ground when I realized that my knapsack had opened on the walkup and half of my food supply was missing. I still had enough food to survive for the weekend but it would be tough. I didn’t want to go and bother Linda or any of the other girls because I didn’t want them to think I was a bad hiker, or unprepared. The girls often made jokes and smirked at me because they didn’t think I was mature enough to handle the trip.

The big bright moon fell over the night sky and the temperature was dropping. I was sleeping like a baby in my little tent and before I knew it the worst possible event had started. The sky filled with storm clouds and the heavens starting pouring out water. Lighting was lighting up the sky in different shades of purple in pink. The wind was whirling around and I started to panic. I could here the other girls starting to scream and then before I knew it, I felt the ground beneath me begin to fade away. I was being thrown around like a sack of potatoes. “What’s happening to her!” I heard one of the girls say. I knew that the outcome of this would not be good. I closed my eyes and prayed to god to make it stop, and before I knew it I opened my eyes and the sky was clearing up. My tent was ripped to shreds and I was now stuck in the deep dense forest. I started to look around me and I didn’t see a human in sight. I tried to listen for voices but I didn’t here anything. “Can anyone here me!” I shouted, but I didn’t get a response. I started to walk around in hopes of finding my group. Hours were passing like minutes and night fell in the blink of an eye. I found a large tree that would be a decent shelter for the night so I decided to curl up next to it and try and get some sleep. I closed my eyes and was out like a light. The sound of chirping birds woke me the next morning. I still couldn’t belive what had happened to me. I kept hoping that it was all just a terrible dream and I would wake up any second now. My stomach was growling like crazy so I looked around for some food. I found a small berry bush and ate some of the berries. I set off on the search for civilization again. I had absolutely no idea where I was, and to be honest, I was beyond frightened. The hot sun was beating down on my head and making me exhausted. I heard something rumbling in the bushes beside me. My heart beat was increasing and my legs started to quiver. I started sprinting as fast as I could until I collapsed. Suddenly, I realized were I was. I was almost at the bottom of the mountain. Had my prayers been answered? Was I actually going to survive? I sat down for a minute to process what had happened, then I started walking to what I thought was the bottom of the mountain. I walked for at least 10 miles then I saw something, it was a helicopter above. “over here! Help, help!” The helicopter was circling around me then started getting lower and lower to the ground. Was I being rescued?